Here's what's actually going on, according to a source briefed on AOL's plans.

AOLwill be letting some people go soon, but not at numbers nearly so high.

The cuts will come (mostly) in AOL's Silicon Valley office.

The purpose of these firings is not cost-cutting. People are getting let go because consumers are not using the products produced by AOL's West Coast team – About.me, Editions, etc – and "the accountability train has arrived."

The big picture is this: AOL spent a lot of money on Huffington Post and its media business. That's the bet. Products that do not drive traffic to those properties are failures, and AOL will not continue committing resources to them. AOL is The Huffington Post; The Huffington Post is AOL.